The brand was revived in 2007 when Interactive Game Group acquired it from Atari Interactive, formerly Infogrames. The MicroProse brand was licensed to the Legacy Engineering Group for consumer electronics. As of 2010, the MicroProse brand is currently owned by Cybergun Group.

Contents

History1

Independent company (1982–1993)1.1

Under Spectrum HoloByte (1993–1998)1.2

Under Hasbro Interactive (1998–2001)1.3

Under Infogrames (2001–2003)1.4

Games2

Legacy3

Brand name for Interactive Game Group3.1

Financial performance4

References5

External links6

History

Independent company (1982–1993)

In summer 1982, mutual friends who knew of their shared interest in aviation arranged for retired military pilot Bill Stealey and computer programmer Sid Meier to meet in Las Vegas, Nevada. After Meier surprised Stealey by repeatedly defeating him when playing Red Baron, he explained that he had analyzed the game's programming to predict future actions and claimed that he could design a better home computer game in one week. Stealey promised to sell the game if Meier could develop it. Although Meier needed two months to produce Hellcat Ace, Stealey sold 50 copies in his first sales appointment and the game became the first product of their new company.[1] They planned to name it Smugger's Software, but chose MicroProse. (In 1987 the company agreed to change its name to avoid confusion with MicroPro International, but MicroPro decided to rename itself after its WordStar word processor.)[2] MicroProse became profitable in its second month and had $10 million in sales by 1986.[3]

Under Spectrum HoloByte (1993–1998)

In December 1993, MicroProse Software Inc. merged with Spectrum HoloByte, another game company that specialized in simulation games, to form MicroProse Inc.[9] Bill Stealey, who was good friends with Spectrum HoloByte president Gilman Louie, convinced Louie to help MicroProse as Stealey was afraid that some bank would not understand the company culture. MicroProse UK was forced to close its two satellite studios of MicroProse in northern England and dispose of over 40 staff at its Chipping Sodbury head office (Microprose Chipping Sodbury). A core group of artists, designers, and programmers left MicroProse UK to join Psygnosis (freshly acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment to work on the PlayStation games), which opened an office in Stroud specifically to attract ex-MicroProse employees. In 1994, Stealey departed MicroProse and Spectrum HoloByte agreed to buy out his shares. Stealey went on to found an independent game company Interactive Magic (also specializing in vehicle simulators and strategy games), while Andy Hollis departed for Origin Systems, and Sandy Petersen joined id Software.

MicroProse Software continued as separate subsidiary company under Spectrum HoloByte until 1996. That year, Spectrum HoloByte started cutting a majority of the MicroProse staff to reduce costs. Soon after, it consolidated all of its titles under the MicroProse brand (essentially renaming itself MicroProse). MicroProse's remaining co-founder Sid Meier, along with Jeff Briggs and Brian Reynolds, departed the company after the staff cut, forming a new company named Firaxis Games.[11]

On October 5, 1997, GT Interactive Software announced that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire MicroProse for $250 million in stock, the deal had even been unanimously approved by the Board of Directors of both companies. After the announcement MicroProse's stock price reached $7 a share. GT Interactive expected the deal to be completed by the end of that year.[12][13] But the acquisition was cancelled on December 5, as according to both CEOs "the time is simply not right" for the deal. MicroProse's stock plummeted to just $2.31 after the announcement of the deal's cancellation.[14] According to Computer Gaming World, the merger was annulled due to a "fundamental" disagreement over how the joint company would be writing off its research and development costs, as MicroProse insisted to keep their method of paying off the developer immediately.[15]

In November 1997, MicroProse was sued by both Avalon Hill (who had the U.S. publishing rights to the name Civilization)[16] and Activision for copyright infringement. MicroProse responded by buying Hartland Trefoil, which was the original designer and manufacturer of the Civilization board game, and then sued Avalon Hill and Activision for trademark infringement and unfair business practices as a result of Activision's decision to develop and publish Civilization video games.[17] Because Hasbro was negotiating the acquisition of both Avalon Hill and MicroProse, the lawsuits were settled in July 1998. Under the terms of the settlement MicroProse became the sole owner of the rights of the name Civilization and Activision acquired a license to publish a Civilization video game which was later titled Civilization: Call to Power.[16][18]

Under Hasbro Interactive (1998–2001)

In preparation for its sale, MicroProse closed down its studio in Austin in June 1998; as a result of the closure, 35 employees were laid off.[19] On August 14, 1998, Hasbro issued a $70 million cash tender offer to purchase all MicroProse's shares for $6 each.[20] This deal was completed on September 14, when Hasbro bought 91% of MicroProse's shares and announded that MicroProse had become a wholly owned subsidiary.[21][22] The remaining shares would also be acquired for $6 in cash. MicroProse was merged with Hasbro Interactive.[23] At the time of Hasbro's acquisition, MicroProse had 343 employees, including 135 at Alameda, California (MicroProse Alameda), with a total operating cost of $20 million per year.[24] Besides the development studio in Alameda, MicroProse had three other studios: Hunt Valley, Maryland (Microprose, Hunt Valley); Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and Chipping Sodbury, England.

In December 1998, MicroProse finally managed to publish Falcon 4.0 (in development by Spectrum HoloByte since 1992), to disappointing sales. In December 1999, Hasbro Interactive closed down former MicroProse studios in Alameda and Chapel Hill.[25][26] Among titles in development that got canceled during that period was X-COM: Genesis. The last MicroProse developed game under Hasbro, B-17 Flying Fortress: The Mighty 8th, was published in 2000.

Under Infogrames (2001–2003)

In January 2001, after French game publisher Infogrames Entertainment, SA (IESA) took over Hasbro Interactive for $100 million,[27] MicroProse ceased to exist and the long development of X-COM: Alliance was finally aborted. Its latest title in the U.S., European Air War, was reissued with Infogrames' logo instead of the MicroProse logo. The final game published with the MicroProse name was the UK version of Grand Prix 4, released in late 2002. Infogrames shut down the former MicroProse studio in Chipping Sodbury in September 2002.[28] Hasbro Interactive was renamed to Infogrames Interactive and then to Atari Interactive.[29]

Infogrames intermittently used the Atari name as a brand name for selected titles before officially changing the U.S. subsidiary's name to Atari, Inc. in 2003.[30] In November 2003, Atari Inc. closed the last former MicroProse development studio in Hunt Valley,[31] which was MicroProse's original location. However, several game developers now exist in the area, including Firaxis Games and BreakAway Games, who all owe their origin to MicroProse.

Brand name for Interactive Game Group

In 2007, Interactive Game Group acquired the MicroProse brand from Atari Interactive Inc, which filed for transfer of trademark protection on December 27, 2007.[33] Interactive Game Group then shared a percentage of the MicroProse brand to I-Drs At in January 2008.[34][35] Claims as to what titles and other intellectual properties were also acquired by the Interactive Game Group from Infogrames remain unverified, and the last verified owner of MicroProse properties is Infogrames.[36]

The Interactive Game Group also licensed the MicroProse brand to the Legacy Engineering Group (LEG), which used the license to form subsidiaries called Microprose Systems and Microprose Consumer Electronics Division, selling consumer electronics from February 2008 to the second half of 2008. In October 2008, the licensing agreement between LEG and Frederic Chesnais, owner of Interactive Game Group, was discontinued, forcing LEG to rebrand its subsidiaries to Legacy Consumer Electronics.[37]

In 2010, the Cybergun Group, manufacturer of airsoft gun products, merged with Interactive Game Group and MicroProse,[38] giving them access to officially licensed weapons. As of 2012, the name is used by a video game studio Microprose (with no capital "P" in the name).[39]

As it can be seen from the table above, MicroProse's revenue performance varied according to game releases. The release in February 1996 of Civilization II is one of the factor that weighed positively on 1997's financial result, that year revenues rose 68% to $100 million. MicroProse recognized that deficiency, the Annual Report of 1998 informed:[43]

"The Company depends on both the timely introduction of successful new products or sequels to existing products to replace declining revenue from older products. [...] If for any reason revenue from new products or other activities fails to replace declining revenue from existing products, or if revenue from back-catalog titles declines significantly, the Company's operating results may be adversely affected."

That is why MicroProse's revenue varied so wildly, and in order to grow stably an ever increasing number of major game titles would have to be released in a timely basis and just maintaining revenues on the level of the previous year was a challenge.

MicroProse's net income/loss (in millions)

Year

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

Net income (loss)[42][41]

$−4.0

$−58.4

$−18.0

$−39.8

$7.9

$−33.1

MicroProse lost $145 million between the years 1993 and 1998. The incapacity of MicroProse to operate profitably explains why the company could not stay as an independent one for much longer and sought acquisition from GT Interactive and Hasbro Interactive. In addition, MicroProse's over-dependence on new releases for both profits and revenues helps explain why MicroProse's market value went from $250 million in October 1997 to just $70 million 10 months later. In the first quarter of 1999, MicroProse posted revenues of $12.1 million and net losses of $7.8 million.[44]

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